Beatles News

Newly privatised Royal Mail is launching its first TV ad in six years to promote the dedication of its postmen and women in the build-up to Christmas. The campaign features a version of The Beatles’ classic song 'All You Need Is Love', recorded at Abbey Road Studios by the Royal Mail Choir.

It shows parcels being delivered across the country in all types of weather, with the endline, "We Love Parcels". The delivery business has launched a teaser ad today ahead of the debut of a full-length, 60-second ad during tomorrow’s 'The X Factor' ITV. A 30-second Christmas version will also air later in the year. The ad was created by agency (Beta), with media planning and buying by UMLondon. Royal Mail selected the 25 stars of the ad after an audition process involving 2,500 of its employees. Ben Rhodes, head of marketing and commercial strategy at Royal Mail, said: "Our people are responsible for delivering millions of precious parcels a year,
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The debate over whether this is the greatest All-Starr Band that Ringo Starr has ever assembled can be put off for another time. There is no question, however, that it’s one of the most closely knit: “This band has all great musicians,” Starr says in this clip. “But the spirit of this band is very close.”

Starr is touring, once again, with a group that includes Gregg Rolie, Steve Lukather, Todd Rundgren and Richard Page — continuing an All-Starr run that’s already hit North America (where the group filmed a well-received live DVD at the Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium), Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Now, they’re playing more than a dozen shows in Latin America, before returning to the states for two more Las Vegas dates later this month. “This is the best band that Ringo has ever had,” says Rundgren, previously a member of the 1992 and ’99 editions. “Not just from the standpoint of playing together, but also I was never in a band where we all go ou
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Broadway director Vivek Tiwary reveals his admiration for the man and talks about his plans for a landmark Beatles film. He was so influential in the success of John, Paul, George and Ringo that he was often referred to as the fifth Beatle.

The mastermind behind the band’s big break in America, Brian Epstein discovered the Liverpool quartet in 1961 when they weren’t even the biggest musical act in the city. By the time he died in 1967 in his Westminster home, they were the biggest band in the world. Yet as New York resident Vivek Tiwary found out long ago, little is actually known about the man himself. “When I started to research Epstein,” Tiwary says, “I was quite stunned to find there are no books about him in print. You can find a book about John Lennon’s astrologist but not the man who discovered The Beatles.” Renowned for his success as a Broadway theatre producer with shows like The producers and Green Day’s American Idiot, Tiwary has been a Brian Eps
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In Los Angeles, real estate often stays in the celebrity family. If one celeb lives in a home, chances are another will follow suit. Such seems the case with an English-style home at 1385 Miller Place in the Hollywood Hills that's listed for sale at $2.495 million. The charming house reputedly has been rented by a number of stars over the years, starting with The Beatles.

"It was a rental house for a long time," current owner Mike Clifford said. "When The Beatles played the Hollywood Bowl at the height of their fame, they stayed in the house. David Hockney lived in the home for a couple of years and gave my neighbor a painting." Musician Meat Loaf and author Casey Johnson, daughter of Johnson & Johnson's co-founder, also reportedly leased the home. (View the interior in the slideshow below.) The former owner was a Hollywood socialite, and through her, stars discovered the 1939-built home for themselves. Of course, most of the home's rental history is hearsay -- stories passed from owner to owner and neighbor to neighbor -- as rental
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Music fans have a new date for their diary. Fifty years to the day that The Beatles played in Huddersfield, rare photographs of the band will go on display.

Trevor Bray, a photographer from Holmfirth, took the black and white photos of the Liverpool group on November 29, 1963, before they performed at the ABC Cinema. Mr Bray died in 2006 aged 76 without knowing the significance of his pictures. It was only in recent years that his daughter, Helen who is also a photographer, decided to do something with them. She said: “We spent the year working on these pictures. “And we thought it was about time they came back home as they have never been on display here.” In 1963 The Beatles were on the verge of stardom – but Mr Bray was only there as he was commissioned to take photographs of the band before they went on stage. He took a mixture of individual and band portraits.

SIR PAUL McCARTNEY's cell phone was hacked into "for years" by a private detective working on behalf of disgraced tabloid the News of the World, a court heard on Friday (01Nov13).

The Beatles legend was first targeted in 2002, as his relationship with Heather Mills progressed towards marriage, and the surveillance continued until at least 2004, a jury at London's Old Bailey was told. Prosecution lawyer Andrew Edis QC told the court, "Paul McCartney and Heather Mills were the subject of phone hacking for years. I refer you back to the wedding ring story in 2002. (The newspaper was) still hacking (in 2004)." The sensational allegation has come in the first week of the high-profile 'phone hacking' trial arising out of the scandal that closed the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid in 2011. It is alleged some senior staff at the newspaper commissioned a private investigator to access cell phones of the rich and famous to listen to their voicemail messages.

Andrew Knott, best known for appearing in The History Boys both on stage and screen, is to star in a BBC drama that imagines what would have happened if The Beatles had been turned down by George Martin.

Called Sorry Boys You Failed the Audition, the BBC Radio 4 drama has been penned by Ray Connolly, who wrote the films That’ll Be the Day and Stardust. In the drama Knott plays John Lennon, with Stephen Fletcher as Paul McCartney, Luke Broughton as George Harrison and Daniel Crossley as Ringo Starr. It is set in 1962, the year the band auditioned for George Martin at Parlaphone Records. By this time the group had been turned down by every other record company, and the drama imagines what would have happened had Martin, played by Jonathan Keeble, done the same.

The former Beatles star said getting rid of the Triyoga Centre, which is used by a host of celebrities including actress Sadie Frost and TV chef Jamie Oliver and his wife Jools, would be an "unforgivable mistake".

In a statement sent to the Camden New Journal, Sir Paul and Miss Shevell, who uses the centre, said: “Triyoga is as much a part of Primrose Hill as the hill itself. It is an invaluable resource to the local community. To think that it might be lost to the area is an unforgivable mistake.” The yoga centre, which is currently housed in the Leeder House building, Erskine road, in the affluent North London area, could be turned into new offices and homes. However, the planning application by Durley Investment Corporation, which is posted on the council's website, has prompted a number of objections.

The Beatles are getting their first mention in Encyclopedia Britannica in 50 years. Next February 2014, also the 50th anniversary of the group’s arrival in America, the EB has a feature on the group in their annual Book of the Year. It’s the first time since 1964. Martin Lewis, Beatles expert, wrote the entry which can be found at http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2013/10/2013-birth-of-beatlemania/

The annual volume, that surveys the most significant world events of each year, deemed the group’s global breakthrough in 1964 sufficiently noteworthy to merit a report in its Book Of The Year for that year. But the Beatles have never warranted a second “Special Report” in that prestigious book. Nor to the best of recollections have any other popular entertainers had a second bite of the Britannica cherry. I’m told this is rather unusual for many reasons. The Encyclopedia Britannica primarily covers topics such as geography (26%), biography (14%), biology and medicine (11%), literature (7%), physics and astronomy (6%), religion (5%).
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Reviewing an album of lullabies may seem unusual for us at Something Else! Reviews. However, music fans who are also parents can agree on two things: one, it’s important to introduce your baby to quality music early; and two, you and the child need sleep!

In recent years, more music labels have recognized this market, catering to moms and dads who may want to hear more than “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or “Rockabye Baby.” The latest edition in the Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Starseries, Lullaby Versions of John Lennon, allow parents to expose their little one to Lennon’s music while still soothing her. All tracks are instrumental and rearranged to calm babies — and even their parents. Unlike similar children’s albums, this one moves beyond the music box template. Instead, it incorporates slight percussion and a fuller sound. What makes Lullaby Versions of John Lennon stand out, however, is its choice of tunes. Yes, obvious tracks like &ldquo
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